I am the owner of Iron Psych Works, Inc. of Swarthmore, and I will be sharing my knowledge with Phillylacrosse.com about utilizing sport and exercise psychology within their sport.

We are going to call this “Sport Psych Session.” Hopefully, you will take this information and implement it into your game to maximize performance.

I will be discussing issues that may arise in sport competition, specific mental skill techniques and how to incorporate them into your individual lacrosse game. These techniques can be integrated within varying aspects of your game such as practice, off-season, in-game, pre-season, strength and conditioning sessions, etc. In this Sport Psych Session, we will be conversing about w hat sport psychology actually is and what a sport psychological consultant does.

What exactly is Sport Psychology? Sport psychology is the study of the psychological and mental factors that influence and are influenced by participation and performance in sport, exercise, and physical activity (AAASP, 2002).

What does a Sport Psychological Consultant do?

Sport psychological professionals may provide a variety of services depending on their professional training. The most common services focus on providing information about the role of psychological factors in sport, exercise, and physical activity to individuals, groups, and organizations.

For example, a consultant may assist with exercise adherence, communication, teamwork, or program development and evaluation. Sport psychology is an educational model, where individuals are taught specific mental, behavioral, psychosocial, and emotional control skills and techniques in the context of sport, exercise, and physical activity.

Next session, we will start to have real fun and really begin to apply these new found techniques into your game. Remember everyone practices their stick skills, shooting skills and ball skills…even less individuals physically train…but next to no athlete focuses on the psychology behind the game. Something to think about as you prepare for the next season. One closing thought from Wayne Gretzky…Sport is 10% physical and 90% mental.

References
Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology. Retrieved October 5, 2002 from www.aaasponline.org.